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Culture
The Arts Art is deeply rooted in Hydravi history. They have always had things made for aesthetics, from beaded decorations to the pots they had made when they lived on the surface. However their biggest use of the arts is through music and in the past, dance. Their most common type of music is song, which easily travels through water, though sometimes they take to small islands that are above the water and play tunes on their instruments. This has often made people mistake the underwater race as a type of siren, which they are not. Though they can't paint very easily underwater, the use of magic has made carving in stone much easier, allowing for them to still make works of art despite their living conditions. Architecture Their primary source of shelter is large rocks spanning over many miles that have built up on the ocean floors. They carve into these rocks, making tunnels which they can then carve houses and other such buildings into. This makes their living conditions seem very simple, as there is very little design to their buildings. That statement excluding their temples, which they put a great deal of effort into. Their temples are the only structures built with extreme care and careful consideration. If a building looks well-made, chances are it is a temple. Cusisine Their diet is primarily fish and eels as proteins, though occassionally they get birds that land on the water. As for vegetables, they eat the seaweed, coral, and other plant life that grows on the surrounding rock. They aren't much for chefs, since they only have a few means to prepare their food, but they do cut them up and try and make some presentation to it when they can - without it floating off or attracting too much attention from other marine life. Agriculture They sometimes raise fish in captivity for a quicker food supply, but they still are primarily a hunter-gatherer society. As for planting, they don't have much say in where things grow - when they try and plant seeds, they get washed away and grow somewhere else instead. Games/Sports Games and sports are pretty much the same thing for the Hydravi, since they're an active race. Often their games involve racing one another, or racing the marine life. A lot of the games link back to hunting as well, where they spear-head their food as well as "prize" animals. Some games also involve exploration, as the Hydravi tend to be curious about what all is around them. Since there is more water than there is land, the Hydravi have many areas to explore, which can lead to self-made adventures that they can go on for entertainment. Clothing Clothing isn't something that they deal with, it gets in the way and bogs them down when they're swimming and it doesn't have the purpose of covering genitalia, since theirs isn't constantly visible. They do like jewelry and people collect large amounts of it. Often they wear necklaces or other types of bands, to show off their social status and "fashion sense." Jewelry is easier to wrap around their bodies and causes very little pull, so they can wear it without having it impose upon their daily lives. Racism/Sexism The Hydravi live alone underwater, spare for the fish, flora and other mammals, so there isn't much racism for them. And as they grow up and decide their sex, they don't have much of an issue of sexism - as they develop they know what stereotypes they will be cast into, so there's no need to point out another person's sex. There is classism, as the upperclass definitely looks down on the lowerclass, seeing themselves as above them. And even below the lowerclass are the slaves, who are seen more as animals than actual hydravi. Trade Even though the hydravi don't interact with anyone on the surface, they do trade with other "clans" of hydravi, who live in different bodies of water, or even just a ways down the street. Trade between cities is very common - though a lot of what they trade has nothing to do with survival. While there is a good fish trade among them, and they also trade weapons, most of it is to give and receive different types of beading or other goods that have been dropped down into the water. Weapons Their weapons are very basic and light, to not drag them down. They use knives and spears, as well as stone daggers to fight off creatures as well as one another. These tools have a dual purpose in that they are also often used as decoration or silverware. Most of what they use to trap prey is netting or small bait-based traps. Using actual weapons as listed above isn't common for them and is more of a last resort if these less hands-on tactics don't work as well. Work For work, there are the hunters, who go out and catch or hunt prey in the deeper waters. These hunters usually also double as knights when the times call for them. There are also those who make the jewelry, which is unsurprisingly the trade that makes the most money and has the most customers. The traders are who deliver the goods from one place to the next, working as a type of "mailman" between the clans. This job doesn't pay too well, but often they get rewarded in other goods, or find valuable things on the less traveled paths. Then there are those who patrol the city as guards, keeping an eye out for any sign of law-breaking or intrusion. Politicans also exist down here, though their main duty is to act as ambassadors between the people on land and the people underwater, so there are no misunderstandings between the territorial separations. Lastly there are slaves. They don't make much money, if any at all, but they are considered a job by the people. Category:Basic Information Category:Hydravi